Paramount Pictures’ Jackass movie franchise is moving to the Web, with what they are calling the first studio-backed film to premiere online: On Dec. 19, the studio will make Jackass 2.5 available in connection with Blockbuster‚Äôs Movielink service. The hour-plus film has original material and previously unseen outtakes from the second Jackass movie in 2006. [...]

Several of the world’s leading Internet and media companies today announced their joint support for a set of copyright guidelines for user-generated content designed to protect the intellectual property of content owners. According to the companies, the principles offer a comprehensive set of guidelines to help user-generated content (UGC) services and content creators work together [...]

Viacom has unveiled a new site for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart that’s designed to offer an alternative to YouTube and other video sharing sites. Viacom is also demonstrating that it’s figured out how to compete with YouTube: give people what they want. The new site offers 13,000 high-quality clips, from episodes dating back [...]

Viacom’s MTV Networks is expected to announce today plans to merge its online digital music offerings into a joint venture with RealNetworks. MTV and RealNetworks, which runs subscription digital-music service Rhapsody, plan to join forces in a bid to compete with Apple Inc’s iTunes online music store. Verizon Wireless is expected to supply mobile distribution [...]

Google said Friday that its long-promised content filtering system to combat piracy was coming soon. Google made the announcement at a hearing Friday in the billion dollar copyright-infringement lawsuit that Viacom filed against Google. Google attorney Philip S. Beck told the judge the company was working “very intensely” on a video recognition technology. According to [...]

Internet television service Joost today announced that five parties have collectively invested approximately $45 million in the company. This funding will enable Joost to accelerate development,of its ad-supported Internet video offerings. The investments highlight growing interest in Internet video business opportunities, along with an interest by content creators to see an alternative to YouTube. CBS [...]

Variety reports that YouTube will update it site as early as next week to integrate advertising with its vast library of videos. Content creators who upload their videos to the site will be offered the option of having short ads shown at the beginning or end, with the resulting revenues split 50-50. In order to [...]

YouTube plans to start banning videos posted to the site that may contain copyrighted content, according to CEO Eric Schmidt. The new system, which Schmidt called Claim Your Content, will automatically identify copyright material so that it can be removed, Schmidt said. Schmidt made his comments at the National Association of Broadcasters conference. “We are [...]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is fighting to protect the free speech rights of MoveOn.org Civic Action and Brave New Films after their parody of The Colbert Report was removed from YouTube because of a copyright complaint from media giant Viacom. Viacom recently asked YouTube to remove 100,000 video clips from Viacom-owned properties, including MTV [...]

Microsoft is locking down its video-sharing site, Soapbox, limiting membership so it can create better safeguards against pirated content. After Viacom announced its $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube, Microsoft appears to have decided its video sharing site offered too juicy a target. Here’s Microsoft’s statement on the changes: Dear Soapbox users, Thanks for helping us [...]